Typhoon

The slow-moving Typhoon Dolphin approached Japan's southern remote islands on Friday, causing a main airport on Okinawa to close and grounding all flights in and out of the island, while sending hundreds of people to take shelter at evacuation centres. The typhoon was near Yoron Island and heading west toward the main island of Okinawa with maximum winds of 144 kph (89 mph) as of late morning Friday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Three men in their 70s were slightly injured - two of them were caught in the wind and a third one fell from a stool, apparently blown off by the wind while preparing for the storm, the Okinawa prefecture said. The Naha Airport on Okinawa Island said it closed Friday and all domestic and international flights in and out of Naha have been cancelled. As of midday Friday, 240 people had taken shelter at evacuation centres across Okinawa, the prefecture said. With Dolphin expected to affect part of Japan's southern main island of Kyushu, resid

China on Sunday activated emergency relief measures after Typhoon Noul made landfall in the southern province of Guangdong, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain to large parts of the region. Typhoon Noul, the 12th cyclone to hit China this year, made landfall along the Guangdong coast early Sunday. China's National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief activated a Level-IV national disaster relief emergency response for Guangdong, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. China has a four-tier, colour-coded weather warning system for typhoons, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Level-IV is the least severe tier in the four-tier emergency response system. Level I is the most critical/severe. A working team has been dispatched to the affected areas to assess the situation and assist local authorities in relocating and resettling residents, besides ensuring their basic living needs. The National Development and

Typhoon Noul made landfall early Sunday and was bringing winds and heavy rain to southern China, including Hong Kong, over the weekend. It prompted the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in Guangdong province with the region on high alert and dozens of flights were cancelled. China's national weather centre said Noul made landfall along the coast of Huidong county of the city of Huizhou in the southern Guangdong province at approximately 3:50 am local time on Sunday. Hong Kong's Observatory said Noul, with maximum sustained winds of 145 kph (90 mph) near its centre, was moving Sunday into inland Guangdong and weakening progressively, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to parts of the region. More than 3,40,000 people had been relocated for safety by Saturday afternoon in Guangdong province, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Train services in the province were canceled for Sunday, according to the China News Service. China's National Meteorological Centre expected pa

China on Saturday activated its flood-control emergency response in several regions as Typhoon Noul is expected to bring heavy rainfall while more than 400 flights were cancelled in Hong Kong. The regions are Fujian, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi, covering large parts of eastern, central and southern China. Met officials in Hong Kong initiated emergency measures as Typhoon Noul approached. More than 410 flights and 150 high-speed train services were cancelled while the Home Affairs Department had opened 28 shelters in anticipation of the approaching storm, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. In Beijing, China's Ministry of Water Resources activated a Level-IV response as rivers at higher flood risk in these regions include some of the country's major waterways, such as the Pearl, Yangtze and Huaihe, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. To brace for potential flooding, the ministry has urged local water conservancy authorities to closely .

Nearly two million people were evacuated as Typhoon Bavi struck eastern China, bringing torrential rain, violent winds, flooding and widespread transport disruptions

Chinese authorities evacuated more than 1 million people on Saturday and issued high alerts as eastern China braced for Typhoon Bavi, which has brought strong winds and rain to Japan's southern islands and Taiwan. Earlier, at least 17 people were killed in the southern Philippines, mostly due to landslides that were set off by seasonal monsoon rains that Bavi intensified before the typhoon blew away toward Taiwan, Philippine officials said Saturday. With maximum sustained winds of 144 kph (89 mph) near its center, Bavi is passing north of Taiwan on Saturday, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration. It is expected to move toward Zhejiang in eastern China and, according to China's National Meteorological Center, make landfall before midnight or in the early hours of Sunday and then move inland. China evacuates over 1.7 million people ------------------------------------------- Authorities in the Zhejiang province have evacuated more than 1.7 million people as of Saturda

Authorities in southern China said Thursday that 39 people died in flooding after a tropical storm dumped heavy rainfall, as the country's east coast and Taiwan prepared for a typhoon expected to make landfall in the coming days. Most of the deaths were in Hengzhou, where the partial collapse of a reservoir dam sent torrents of water into the city and claimed 26 lives, said Ding Wei, the vice mayor of Nanning city, which has jurisdiction over the area. Nine people remained missing in the broader Guangxi region. Tropical Storm Maysak brought record rainfall to Guangxi starting Saturday, breaching reservoirs and stranding people for days in homes and other buildings. The previously announced death toll on Tuesday was six people. A second storm, Typhoon Bavi, was at sea on a northwest track that would take it over some remote Japanese islands and then just north of Taiwan before making landfall in China's Fujian or Zhejiang province on Saturday. Fishing boats could be seen tightly pack

Mekkhala, currently a tropical storm, is nearing southern Japan's Ryukyu Islands after skirting Taiwan where it brought heavy rain to parts of the island, especially in the southern regions

Typhoon Fung-wong blew out of the northwestern Philippines on Monday after setting off floods and landslides, knocking out power to entire provinces, killing at least two people and displacing more than 1.4 million others. It was forecast to head northwest toward Taiwan. Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines while the country was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed. Fung-wong slammed ashore in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon with sustained winds of up to 185 kph and gusts of up to 230 kph. The 1,800-kilometre-wide storm weakened as it raked through mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before blowing away from the province of La Union into the South China Sea, according to state forecasters. One person drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes, a

Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, started battering the country's northeastern coast ahead of landfall on Sunday, knocking down power, forcing the evacuation of more than a million people and prompting the defence chief to warn many others to evacuate to safety from high-risk villages before it's too late. Fung-wong, which could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 1,600-kilometre-wide rain and wind band, approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central island provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a state of emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong, which is called Uwan in the Philippines. Fung-wong, with winds of up to 185 kph and gusts of

The country had witnessed over 200 deaths due to Typhoon Kalmaegi last week before heading into Vietnam, where five deaths were reported

Typhoon Kalmaegi brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam on Friday, killing at least five people, flattening homes, blowing off roofs and uprooting trees. In the Philippines, where the storm left at least 204 dead earlier in the week, survivors wept over the coffins of their loved ones and braced for another typhoon. As the storm moved on, recovery work began in battered towns and villages in both countries. Across central Vietnamese provinces, people cleared debris and repaired roofs on their homes. Jimmy Abatayo, who lost his wife and nine close relatives after the typhoon unleashed flooding in the central Philippine province of Cebu, was overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt as he ran his palm over his wife's casket. I was able to swim. I told my family to swim, you will be saved, just swim, be brave and keep swimming, said Abatayo, 53, pausing and then breaking into tears. They did not hear what I said because I would never see them again. Mourning the dead in the ...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 241 people dead and missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year. Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead, mostly from drowning in flash floods, and 127 missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu, before the tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago on Wednesday into the South China Sea. The typhoon's onslaught, which affected nearly 2 million people, displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters. Marcos's emergency declaration, made during a meeting with disaster-response officials to assess the typhoon's aftermath, would allow the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.

Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 66 people dead with 26 others missing in the central Philippines, many in widespread flooding that trapped people on their roofs and swept away scores of cars in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake, officials said on Wednesday. Among the dead were six people who were killed in a separate incident when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday while en route to help provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said without providing other details, including what could have caused the crash. Kalmaegi blew away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea before noon on Wednesday with sustained winds of up to 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph), according to forecasters. Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defence, and provincial officials said most of the deaths were reported

A fast-moving typhoon barrelled across central Philippines on Monday after slamming ashore overnight from the Pacific, leaving at least one person dead, causing flooding and power outages, and displacing tens of thousands of people, officials said. Typhoon Kalmaegi was blowing over the city of Sagay in central Negros Occidental province mid-morning with sustained winds of up to 150 kph and gusts up to 185 kph after making landfall around midnight in the town of Silago town in the eastern province of Southern Leyte. Kalmaegi, the 20th tropical cyclone to batter the Philippines this year, was moving northwestward at 25 kph and was forecast to start shifting away from the western section of the archipelago into the South China Sea later Tuesday. An elderly villager drowned in floodwaters in Southern Leyte, where a provincewide power outage was also reported, officials said in an initial report without providing other details. Ahead of the typhoon's landfall, disaster-response official

Philippine officials ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate to safer grounds and prohibited fishermen from venturing out to sea in an east-central region Monday as a typhoon approached from the Pacific. Authorities warned of torrential rains and potentially deadly storm surges of up to 3 metres (nearly 10 feet). Typhoon Kalmaegi was last spotted about 235 kilometres (146 miles) east of the town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar province, with sustained winds of up to 120 kilometres (74 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph (93 mph), and was forecast to slam into shore later Monday. It was expected to blow westward overnight and on Tuesday and batter central island provinces, including Cebu, which is still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit on Sept. 30 and left at least 79 dead and displaced thousands of people after their houses collapsed or were severely damaged. Kalmaegi, locally named Tino, was forecast to further strengthen over the Philippine Sea before

Matmo regained strength on Saturday morning, becoming a typhoon again as it left the Philippines and moved toward southern China's Hainan province, after it had earlier weakened into a storm. The typhoon had sustained wind speeds of 118 kph on Saturday, according to China's National Meteorological Centre. It is expected to strengthen further before it makes landfall on Sunday in Guangdong and Hainan provinces. Flights from Haikou, the capital of Hainan, will be cancelled starting Saturday night at 11 pm, according to the official China National Radio. The city also said classes will be cancelled and public transport and businesses will be shut on Saturday. Some train routes in Hainan province were cancelled Saturday and service will be suspended again on Sunday. China's national weather observatory issued an orange alert warning for the storm on Saturday. Matmo on Friday passed through the Philippines, where thousands of people were evacuated but no immediate casualties were report

A typhoon blew into the northern Philippines on Friday, complicating the country's disaster response to a deadly earthquake in a central province and two other recent storms. Typhoon Matmo blew into Dinapigue town in Isabela province from the Pacific with sustained winds up to 130 kph and was to blow northwestward over a vast agricultural valley and mountain provinces, where residents in some flood- and landslide-prone villages were evacuating. Schools suspended classes, and cargo and fishing vessels were prohibited from entering the rough seas along the path of the typhoon. It was expected to blow into the South China Sea on Saturday on a course toward southern China, Philippine forecasters said. Hong Kong's observatory said Matmo would pass by the territory on an expected path toward Hainan Island and the mainland's Guangdong province over the weekend. Matmo, locally known as Paolo, was the 16th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year. The Southeast Asian archipelago ..

Lingering heavy rains from a former typhoon caused more flooding and landslides in Vietnam, raising the death toll to 19 in the country with more missing. Rainfall topped 30 centimetres in parts of Vietnam over the past 24 hours, the national weather agency said Tuesday. It warned that heavy downpours would continue. The prolonged rain triggered flash floods and landslides that cut off roads and isolated communities from the northern mountains of Son La and Lao Cai provinces to central Nghe An province. Rivers swollen by downpours and dam discharges have caused widespread flooding and landslides in the north. The Thao River in Yen Bai rose well above emergency levels overnight, sending water up to a metre deep into homes and forcing evacuations. Many streets in the capital, Hanoi, were flooded and authorities warned that people close to the Red River, which passes through the city, should take precautions. State media said Tuesday that authorities were still searching for 13 missi

Vietnam evacuated thousands of people from its central and northern provinces Sunday as Typhoon Bualoi raced toward the country faster than expected and made landfall in the early hours of Monday. The storm came ashore in northern coastal province Ha Tinh and forecasters said it would move inland before weakening as it pushed northwest toward the hilly regions of Ha Tinh and neighbouring Nghe An. Bualoi has left at least 20 people dead in the central Philippines since Friday, mostly from drownings and falling trees, and knocked out power in several towns and cities, officials said. It forced about 23,000 families to evacuate to more than 1,400 emergency shelters. In Vietnam, the typhoon was expected to bring winds of up to 133 kph (83 mph), storm surges of more than a meter (3.2 feet) and heavy rains that could trigger flash floods and landslides. State media reported that more than 347,000 families had lost power because of the storm. Strong gusts ripped off corrugated iron roofs